I didn't see a thread on this (did the AI companies redirect their shilling?) so I'm sharing it here. From Deadline today:

>The Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal sued AI company Midjourney on Wednesday, alleging that its image-generating service “functions as a virtual vending machine” that generates “endless unauthorized copies” of copyrighted works.

>The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, is the first major legal action that studios have taken against an AI company. Axios first reported on the lawsuit.

>The lawsuit states, “By helping itself to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters—without investing a penny in their creation—Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing.”